A report from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) found that more than a third of companies believe hiring mistakes cost their business nothing. However, a poor hire at mid-manager level with a salary of £42,000 can cost a business more than £132,000 due to the accumulation of costs associated with the recruitment process, such as training, onboarding, wasted salary and much more.
This past year has seen a lot of unfortunate redundancies, but has also given others a kickstart to embark on a new career entirely, meaning more people than ever are now searching for a new role. Companies that are hiring have upped their demand for key skills and the competition for the top talent is fierce.
85% of HR decision makers admit their business has made a bad hire – but how do you define what a ‘bad hire’ is for your company? The success of a new recruit is not one-dimensional, and will differ from business to business.
But why do companies make ‘bad hires’?
- 1 in 3 say bad hires occur because they needed to fill the position quickly
- 1 in 3 say bad hires occur because the pool of talent they had available to them was too small
- 1 in 5 ‘don’t know’ how much a bad hire costs
Many UK businesses simply do not have the time to invest in a comprehensive recruitment campaign, resulting in inadequate checks on backgrounds, references or skills of applicants. The talent pool they have access to can also be too small and they may be missing out on passive talent that are not actively seeking a role, but could be tempted if something arises. Another issue could be the lack of collaborative recruitment when making a new hire, such as only one or two key stakeholders left to make the key decision – if more people with different perspectives and knowledge of the company are involved, the less likely it is for a bad hire to occur.
What are the consequences of a bad hire?
Monetary costs such as wasted salary, compensation, training, loss of business and rehiring costs. However, there are many non-monetary costs associated with a bad hire too:
- Low morale – if strife occurs within the team, morale and productivity can be drastically affected
- Staff turnover – good employees may leave due to the bad hire affecting their role
- Teams spread too thin – during the rehiring process, employees may have to cover the work of the missing team member, putting them under unnecessary pressure
- Impact on reputation & branding – a bad hire could dramatically damage the reputation of the company, causing loss of business
How can working with an agency reduce the risk of a bad hire?
When working with an agency, you ensure that all candidates are fully vetted and verified prior to beginning the role. The talent pool that we have access to is considerably bigger, we can utilise our database of circa. 20k education professionals, our expansive social media networks as well as sector specific job boards. We’re equipped to respond quickly and effectively no matter how urgent your hire is.
Already swamped HR teams have enough on their plate without having to handle recruitment too – let us take the load!
Don’t risk the burden of a bad hire – get in touch today to find out how we can support you.
